


"I'm Fine."

by MaladaptiveDaydreamer



Category: Hulk - Fandom, Iron Man (Movies), MCU, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bruce gets sick, Gen, M/M, Sick Character, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25454443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaladaptiveDaydreamer/pseuds/MaladaptiveDaydreamer
Summary: Bruce develops a mysterious illness and tries to hide it from the team.
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Tony Stark, Stanner - Relationship, Tony Stark & Bruce Banner, Tony Stark/Bruce Banner, science boyfriends - Relationship, science bros - Relationship, science husbands - Relationship
Kudos: 70





	"I'm Fine."

The chills were the first symptom. The horrible, horrible chills. This was unusual for Bruce since he was normally a living furnace, but not weird enough to cause alarm, so he ignored these sudden cold spells.

Sometimes, though, despite himself, he couldn’t help but wear sweaters to keep warm. This would earn him a few odd looks from the team occasionally since the room temperature was about 75°, but this didn’t bother him. He knew that they knew how weird he could be sometimes.

Then came the sneezes. Unfortunately, these were much harder to hold in and hide than his chills, much to his discomfort, especially since Thor claimed he sneezed louder than an angry bilgesnipe. He wasn’t sure what that was, but he was still slightly offended. 

Eventually he had to force himself to hold them in to keep his friends from noticing how frequently he sneezed, which became harder to do every passing day. Finally, assuming it a slight cold, he took a pill, confident that he would feel better soon.

The third symptom emerged the next week.

It was a Saturday afternoon. Bruce and Tony were chatting it up in the lab, working on their usual experiments.

Bruce was writing down data as he listened to Tony drone on about how the current Spongebob Squarepants was deteriorating in quality and how the first season was superior. “I completely agree with you.” To be honest, he wasn’t really listening. He was more focused on not coughing, sneezing, or doing anything that might cause his lab partner to worry about him.

Tony, not noticing that Bruce was only half-listening, nodded. “See, that’s why I love you. You’re a man of culture, like me.” He twiddled with some tech, glancing at Bruce for slit second. 

The curly-haired scientist was still writing down data, this time at a furious pace.

“Whoa, slow down there, Flash,” Tony chuckled. “You write like you’re running out of time.” He snorted at his own reference.

Bruce nervously laughed, trying to hurry up and finish his work so he could leave. “Heh, I know, it’s just, I really just want-” He suddenly felt an itch in his nose. 

This time he couldn’t prevent it.

Before he could stop himself, Bruce found himself sneezing. Suddenly, the notebook in his hand was crushed into two pieces as his arm unexpectedly turned a brilliant shade of jade and grew 3 times its size, ripping the cloth of his shirt.  
“What the hell?” Bruce jumped up and stared at his hulked-out arm in confusion. He was too scared to move for fear of the rest of his body changing. Dang. He really liked that shirt.

Tony, concerned, yet intrigued, immediately stopped what he was doing and rushed over to Bruce. “Whoa, you okay Bruce? You’re looking a little, uh, green there, buddy. I didn’t realize I was stressing you out.” He looked a little guilty. He never knew Spongebob could be such a stressful topic.

The scientist shook his head before coughing, which earned him another concerned look from the mechanic. “No, no, Tony, this isn’t your fault. Honestly, this is probably just a hiccup, nothing to worry about.” His nose started running. He quickly wiped it away before returning his attention to his giant green arm. He tried not to look too worried, but he was a terrible actor, and Tony was an incredible lie-detector.

Tony looked at him suspiciously. “How long have you been hiding this?” He glanced at the other man’s arm before poking it.

Bruce jumped. “I haven’t been hiding anything! This was a new symptom-” Bruce suddenly decided he just needed to stop talking.

“Aha, a symptom! So you HAVE been hiding something.” He sighed. “I understand hiding this from the others, but me? I thought I told you you could tell me anything.” Pouting, he put his hand on Bruce’s shoulder. 

Suddenly he jerked his hand back as though he had just touched a hot stove. “Holy shit, you’re hot. And not in a good way.” Now he was really worried. He ran over and shut off the device he was working on. 

“Tony, really, I’m fine-” As he went over to follow Tony, he suddenly felt very dizzy. Before he could make it to him, he stumbled and accidentally knocked over a pile of lab equipment with his freakishly giant arm. Then he went down.

“Bruce!” Tony sprinted over and caught the other man as he fell. 

Bruce groaned before slipping into unconsciousness.

“Jarvis, call Dr. Cho in here. I need her to look at him again.” 

“Of course, sir.”  
The AI’s voice stirred the sleepy scientist awake. His eyes opened, his vision still a blur. He blinked.

Tony sighed with relief seeing this. “Well it’s about time you woke up, sleeping beauty,” Tony teased. Bruce could still hear the concern in his tone. 

“Ugh, what happened?” His vision cleared a little bit, but since he wasn’t wearing his glasses, all he was able to deduce was that he was in a bed in the medical center. And that his arm had almost gone back to normal; it was still a little swollen and green.

“Well,” Tony started, “-we were in the lab discussing a very important topic, and then you half-hulked out and fell asleep.” He sat down in the chair next to Bruce. “That about sums it up. Also, I got Dr. Cho to look at you. She took a few blood samples and studied your cells.” 

Bruce gulped. “And?”

Tony smiled as he took Bruce’s normal hand in his. “Good news, it’s nothing serious. It’s just your enhanced body’s version of a cold.”

“But what about my arm? Why did it hulk-out?”

“Like I said, your body isn’t like normal bodies-- not that your body is weird, I think it’s perfect,” Tony coughed, “-it’s that when your gamma-enhanced cells overheat and become too hot, your body thinks it’s dying and reacts accordingly, hence your half hulk-out.” 

“I guess that makes sense.” He was still dizzy, so anything Tony said would make sense to him at the moment. 

Tony nodded. “My theory is you overworked yourself--as usual-- and ended up making yourself sick. Am I correct?”

Bruce didn’t answer. 

Tony knew by Bruce’s silence that he was correct. He usually was when it came to Bruce’s secrets. “Babe, we talked about this. I’m the one who overworks and you’re the voice of reason. Not the other way around!” He picked up and kissed Bruce’s soft hand. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Bruce hummed. “Well, I could be better.” 

Tony hopped up. “Say no more. What do you need? Jarvis-”

Bruce laughed. “That’s okay, Tony, that’s not necessary. Although it would be nice if I had someone to lay next to me to cool me down.” He smirked.

No more than 5 seconds later was the mechanic in Bruce’s bed. “Mind scooching a bit? I need some room if we’re gonna be sharing a bed.”

Bruce chuckled as he obliged. He sighed contentedly as his boyfriend wrapped an arm around him.

Maybe being sick wasn’t so bad after all.


End file.
